Comment by evdawg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by evdawg | Hacker News Reader

Before switching to a Mac, I was a Linux user for years and years.

I use a Mac simply because I feel OS X is the better operating system. Linux has made strides on the desktop but when push comes to shove, it's just not "there" yet. I'm sure I'm going to be downmodded for saying that, but I really feel it's the truth. Desktop Linux is unstable. While it doesn't crash often, it does sometimes, and I feel that one crash is too many. Multiple displays are wonky. Flash still doesn't work properly. Etc. Etc.

I use OS X because it has the UNIX underpinnings I need to do my job with the stable desktop and cohesive UI that I feel Linux is missing.

Unlike many Linux zealots, I don't feel that there is anything "wrong" with closed-source software. I didn't use Linux for years because it was free as in beer or free as in freedom. I used it because I thought it was the better tool.

And that's why I use a Mac.

Here is my biggest concern though: Apple is an evil, proprietary company. In my opinion, worse than Microsoft. If you use OS X, you are legally locked in to Apple hardware. You cannot legally run OS X on anything but Apple-bought-and-branded computers. At least, with Windows, I have the freedom to install the software on any bloody hardware I want. Yeah yeah, you can Hackintosh or whatever, but it goes against Apple's EULA.

Just because Apple releases parts of OS X under open source licenses, doesn't mean OS X isn't completely proprietary. You can only run it on what Apple lets you run it on. If you need to upgrade your workstation(s) and want to stick with OS X, you are completely at mercy to Apple's products and prices.

In the end, I suck it up. Hopefully one day this will change, but right now OS X is a pleasure to use, and that outweighs the dislike I have with the license.

Desktop Linux is unstable.

Nonsense.

[joe@delilah installer]$ uptime 17:21:39 up 16 days, 9:17, 9 users, load average: 0.40, 0.26, 0.24

And that was a reboot because I had to run Windows for something. I'd gone probably two months without rebooting before that.

Linux, desktop or otherwise, is stable as hell. I stay logged in for months at a time without even thinking about it.

While it doesn't crash often, it does sometimes, and I feel that one crash is too many.

I've seen Mac OS X crash more often in the past two years (the time since a good friend started having a Mac laptop around me enough that I'd have an opportunity to see it crash) than I've seen Linux crash, and I don't even own a Mac (while I have at least one Linux system running every waking moment). In my experience Mac OS X is an order of magnitude less stable than Linux. It would have to be for me to have seen a dozen crashes over two years from a system that I see working for maybe a few hours every week on average, vs. my Linux boxes that I see running 80 or 100 hours every week. And, it's a well-maintained Mac, serviced by Google's Tech Stop.

Multiple displays are wonky.

This one I'll concur on...sort of. It was pretty bad until a couple of years ago. And, it's still bad on some hardware. But, on the best supported video cards, it works very well and without hassle. You do have to be careful about hardware...but Linux probably has more supported hardware these days than Mac OS X or Windows Vista (though very new stuff often doesn't have good drivers yet).

Flash still doesn't work properly.

I haven't had problems with Flash in years. There is the problem of running Flash on a 64 bit install of Linux...but if you use a 32 bit Firefox build, Flash works fine (I'm running on a 64 bit system, and I have no complaints about Flash). This is an issue of the vendor not providing a working 64 bit build--nothing to do with Linux. And there are easy workarounds.

I'm not downmodding, I just don't think your arguments are accurate. The cohesive UI argument is pretty much the only thing I will actually completely concur on. But, the cost of getting a cohesive UI is to give up a cohesive and sane command line (using Mac OS X on the command line makes me very angry, and I have a dozen terminals open at all times, so I would be very angry indeed working on a Mac all the time), not to mention all the other third party tools you have to give up to retain cohesiveness...I just don't see how that's a good trade.

SwellJoe, I wasn't trying to knock Linux. I was just talking about my experiences regarding why I made the switch. It's great to hear that your experience has been more positive. I'm happy that you've found your groove in Linux, and I've found my groove in OS X.

And, likewise, I'm not knocking Mac OS X. I just didn't want misinformation being taken as fact; we're talking to someone who has, apparently, never used Linux on the desktop. It'd be unfair to him to give him a false impression of the stability of Linux, in particular...it is one of the few areas where Linux clearly and demonstrably outshines any other mainstream desktop OS including Mac OS X by a large margin.

I'd never argue that folks can't be productive on OS X, or that Apple doesn't make fine products. They can, and they do. But, let's be fair about our comparisons. Consistency is weak on Linux; we'll all agree. UI beauty is lacking in many applications; we'll agree. Hardware support, particularly newer devices, can be a problem; agreed. But stability is weak? Hells no.

My own Linux uptime anecdote: ~14 months on my thinkpad T43 (daily use, with sleep/resume).

I noticed how long it had been after 4 or 5 months and decided to consciously avoid updating the kernel etc. It finally just crashed one day. Going multi-year on a Linux server is pretty common of course.

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